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William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879
– August 15, 1935) was an American comedian and
actor. 

==Beginnings==
Rogers was born in Indian Territory in what would
later become the state of Oklahoma. His father was
Clement Vann Rogers (1839-1911) and his mother was
Mary America Schrimsher, both of whom were
Cherokee. He used to quip that, "My ancestors
didn't come over on the Mayflower, they were here
to greet the boat!" Will grew up as a cowboy, with
a special knack for rodeo tricks, including
bareback horse riding and rope twirling.

He received sporadic formal education between 1887
and 1898, when he left home to become a cowboy on
the Ewing Ranch in Lipscomb County, Texas, near
the town of Higgins. For a time he attended the
Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri. 
After managing his father's ranch from 1899 to
1902, he sailed for South America, where he spent
five months with the gauchos of the
Argentina|Argentine pampas. Later in 1902, the
still-restless Rogers sailed for South Africa,
where he took a job breaking in horses for the
British Army.  While in South Africa, he began his
show business career, where he joined "Texas
Jack's Wild West Show", to be billed as "The
Cherokee Kid".

==Entering show business==
Joining the Wirth Brothers' Circus in 1903, Rogers
toured Australia and New Zealand before returning
to the United States the following year to appear
at the St. Louis Exposition and receive his first
vaudeville bookings in Chicago. He made his first
appearance in New York City in 1905 and, over the
next ten years, made three trips to Europe and
traveled extensively in Canada and his native
United States.  During this time, he also made his
first airplane flight in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, as a passenger.

From 1916 to 1925, Rogers appeared occasionally
with the famed Ziegfeld Follies; he made his first
motion picture in 1918 – Laughing Bill Hide
– and moved to California in 1919 to work in
the Golden studios. The year 1922 proved a
landmark one for the cowboy-humorist, as he began
a weekly syndicated column which eventually
reached a large readership through some 350
newspapers. He maintained this regularly featured
column until his death in 1935.

==Travels==
From 1925 to 1928, Rogers traveled the length and
breadth of the United States in a "lecture tour".
During this time he became the first civilian to
fly from coast to coast with pilots flying the
mail in early air mail flights.  The National
Press Club of Washington, DC, dubbed him
"Ambassador at Large of the United States"; and,
in 1927, he visited Mexico City with the
transatlantic aviation pioneer Charles A.
Lindbergh as a guest of Ambassador Dwight Morrow. 
In subsequent years, Rogers gave numerous
after-dinner speeches; became a popular convention
speaker; gave benefits for victims of floods,
droughts, or earthquakes. After the Great
Depression hit the United States, Rogers gave
radio talks on unemployment with ex-President of
the United States|President Calvin Coolidge,
President of the United States Herbert Hoover, and
former Presidential candidate Al Smith.

==Middle career==
Through Rogers' continuing series of columns
between 1922 and 1935, as well as in his personal
appearances and radio broadcasts, he won the
loving admiration of the American people, poking
jibes in witty ways at the issues of the day and
prominent people – often politicians. He
wrote from a non-partisan point of view and became
a friend of presidents and a confidant of the
great. Loved for his cool mind and warm heart, he
was often considered the successor to such greats
as Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Farrar
Browne|Artemus Ward.

He made a trip to the Orient in 1931 and to
Central and South America the following year. In
1934, he made a globe-girdling tour and returned
to play the lead in Eugene O'Neill's stage play,
Ah, Wilderness! Also during the period 1930 to
1935,he made radio broadcasts for the Gulf Oil
Company.

==Hollywood==

Rogers moved permanently to the West Coast in
1934, and his Hollywood career in acting
immediately took off. He had, of course,
previously starred in many silent films, but his
popularity soared to new heights with his roles in
sound films for Fox Film Corporation, including
Life Begins at 40 with Richard Cromwell
(actor)|Richard Cromwell, and Rochelle Hudson.

==Writing==
At the same time, he also began writing a popular
syndicated column called "Will Rogers Says". In
it, he expressed his disappointment with big
government and the effect it had on the nation,
particularly during the Great
Depression|Depression era. His wit was often
caustic: as he explained, "There's no trick to
being a humorist when you have the whole
government working for you." Nevertheless, he
identified with the United States Democratic
Party|Democratic Party, saying "I don't belong to
any organized party. I'm a Democrat," and was a
vocal supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At
one point, he was even asked to run for governor
of Oklahoma, the party hoping to benefit from his
immense popularity.

==Marriage and children==
Rogers married Betty Blake (1879-1944) in 1908,
and they had four children: William Vann Rogers
(1911-1993); Mary Amelia Rogers (1913-1989), who
married Walter Brooks II; James Blake Rogers
(1915-2000), who married Margeurite Astre Kemmler
(1917-1987), and after her death married Judith
Braun; and Fred Stone Rogers (1918-1920), who died
of diphtheria as an infant.

==Death==
An avid booster of aviation, Rogers undertook a
polar flight with a fellow Oklahoman, Wiley Post,
in the summer of 1935. Post's plane crashed at
Barrow, Alaska|Point Barrow, Alaska, on 15 August
1935, killing both Post and Rogers.

In 1944 his body was moved from a holding vault in
California to the grounds of the Will Rogers
Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. Later in
1944, Mrs. Rogers was interred beside him.  On
November 4th, 1948, the United States Postal
Service commemorated Rogers with a first day cover
of a 3-cent stamp with his image--the inscription
reads, "In honor of Will Rogers, Humorist,
Claremore, Oklahoma."

==Legacy==
Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, was named after him, as was the U.S.
Navy submarine the USS Will Rogers (SSBN-659)|USS
Will Rogers. Rogers' home, stables, and polo
fields are preserved today for public enjoyment at
Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades, CA.
Rogers's birthplace is open to the public and is
located two miles east of Oologah, Oklahoma.

At Epcot, an Audio-Animatronic Will Rogers is seen
twirling his lasso and speaking in The American
Adventure's 1930s sequence.

Rogers came to life for modern audiences in the
Tony Award winning Musical theater|musical, the
Will Rogers Follies, and he was also portrayed on
the stage by James Whitmore in the one-man show
Will Rogers U.S.A.